Richard III DNA Test Sparks Controversy

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King Richard III has been dead for more than 500 years, but his
bones continue to ignite fresh controversy.

The medieval king, unearthed from a Leicester parking lot in
2012, has been the center of debate over where and how his body
should be reburied. Now, a plan to sequence the
full genome of Richard III has brought new strife.

"Why is the University of Leicester doing this, and why is it
doing it without any consultation?" said John Ashdown-Hill, an
independent historian involved with the search for the bones. The
DNA testing will add very little to scientific knowledge, and it
breaks agreements with Buckingham Palace made before the
University got involved in the Richard III search, Ashdown-Hill
told Live Science. [ See
Photos of the Search of King Richard III ]

"We're talking about a member of the royal family and a former
head of state," he said.

A lost king – and controversy

Richard
III died in 1485, a victim on the field at the Battle of
Bosworth, part of the English War of the Roses. Historical
records held that his battered body was taken to Leicester and
buried, but the grave was lost in the early 1600s.

The search for Richard III's body was sparked by the Richard III
Society, a group of historical enthusiasts who call themselves
Ricardians. Ashdown-Hill is a part of the Looking for Richard
team that got the ball rolling; he started working to sequence
the mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down the maternal line, of
Richard III's living descendant in 2003.

Screenwriter and dedicated Ricardian Philippa Langley took the
lead on the archaeology, urging the Leicester City Council to
allow a dig in its building's parking lot, as historical records
suggested the lot sat over the site of Greyfriars, the church
where Richard III was buried. The Richard III society funded the
dig and hired University of Leicester Archaeological Services
(ULAS) to do the archaeology. ULAS is an independent group of
archaeologists embedded in the University of Leicester's school
of archaeology and ancient history.

These players have sometimes clashed with each other, as well was
with outsiders. Most prominent are debates over where the king
will be reburied. The University of Leicester was granted the
exhumation license for the body, making it the institution
responsible for the reburial. The plan is to rebury Richard III
in Leicester Cathedral. That arrangement has sparked anger from
some who claim relation to the king who'd like to see him buried
in his
adopted hometown of York. And even some who accept a
Leicester burial are upset with the
modernistic designs for Richard III's tomb.

DNA debate

As a result of the burial controversy, a judicial review of the
University of Leicester's custody of the body is ongoing, with a
judgment expected in a few weeks. Against this backdrop come the
criticisms of a newly announced project to sequence the entire
genome of Richard III. The identification of the king's body was
made with mitochondrial DNA, which is a limited portion of the
body's DNA.

That mitochondrial DNA test was necessary, as Richard III was
buried in a shallow grave without a coffin or remaining marker,
Ashdown-Hill said. But further testing, he argues, goes against
precedent.

"Her Majesty the Queen would not allow exhumation of other royal
remains, or the testing of them," Ashdown-Hill said. The hurried
circumstances of Richard III's burial and the turmoil at the time
are the only reasons his bones don't lie in state like other
monarchs, he said — in which case, they would never be
studied. [ Images:
A New Dig at Richard III's Grave ]

The only other royal body exhumed was Anne de Mowbray, the
8-year-old Duchess of York, and the child bride of one of Richard
III's nephews, one of the two "Princes in the Tower" who were
kept in the Tower of London and then vanished when Richard took
the throne. (Rumors persist that he had them murdered.) The
little Duchess was found accidentally in 1964 on a construction
site; her body was not scientifically investigated, and she was
reburied in Westminster Abbey in 1965.

"It's breaking the precedent we had in 1965, what's going on at
the moment [with Richard III]," Ashdown-Hill said.

Crumbling trust

The controversy also reflects distrust between the University of
Leicester and some on the search team not affiliated with the
university. The Looking for Richard team instigated the project
and fought an uphill battle to get everyone else on board for the
actual investigation, Ashdown-Hill said.

"We had to work really hard to get them to do it, and yet when
they found it, everything was, 'The University of Leicester has
done this, the University of Leicester has done that,'" he said.

The Looking for Richard team talked with Buckingham Palace before
the University of Leicester got involved and agreed that images
of any remains found shouldn't be broadcast and that the remains
should be treated with respect, Ashdown-Hill said. The university
now claims the right to continue the scientific investigation,
and has already taken additional bone samples. Even if the courts
judge rules the university doesn't have legal custody of the
body, they may still continue the DNA analysis,
Ashdown-Hill said.

"This might tell us whether or not Richard III had difficulty in
digesting milk, for example," he said. "It might tell us whether
his hair was medium brown, light brown or dark brown. But is that
really very valuable information?"

Turi King, the University of Leicester geneticist leading the DNA
project did not respond to a request for comment; instead, the
university sent a statement defending the decision. The study was
considered by the ethics committee of the university and the
university's college of medicine before approval and is governed
by guidelines set by the Church of England and the governmental
body English Heritage, according to the University.

" King
Richard III is a figure of immense historical and cultural
significance, and the information that we hope to obtain from
sequencing his genome will provide insights into the health and
ancestry of the king and his historical environment," the
university statement reads.

Editor's Note: This article was updated Feb.
26 at 10:05 a.m. Eastern to correct the spelling of
"Ricardians."